· · · Institutional Repository

Het ontwerp speelt in op de problematiek krimp. De ontwerplocatie ligt midden in een groot krimpgebied, namelijk Sesia Valley ten noorden van Milaan. De gekozen doelgroep speelt een grote rol in de oplossingsrichting wat gestuurd word door het thema in-between; Stad en land en publiek en privé.

Wireless communications have numerous applications in terrestrial and space environ-ments, but for one environment the number of civil wireless applications is small. This is the uderwater environment where for wireless communications acoustic waves are used instead of electromagnetic waves. The underwater acoustic channel is a very difficult medium for wireless communications and is subject to severe multipath and Doppler effects. It is possible that each multipath component may have a unique delay and Doppler shift, so called multi-scale/multi-lag channels. This is at present a limiting factor for wireless communications underwater. At the moment always a single Doppler rate is assumed which converts to a narrowband system when re-sampled. In this report a receiver is introduced which can remove the effects of multipath and Doppler where the novelty lies in the fact that it is especially designed for a multi-scale/multi-lag channel. This is done by introducing equalizers followed by channel estimation which are both designed for a multi-scale/multi-lag channel. The designed receiver shows promising results and is able to recover the original transmitted symbols according to the simulations.

Huidige methoden voor het observeren van de conditie van dijken zijn niet altijd even efficiënt en nauwkeurig. Het bedrijf ‘Alert Solutions’ biedt een vernieuwde, meer betrouwbaardere en efficiëntere methode aan om de conditie van dijken te meten. Het is nu nog noodzakelijk om hiervoor een kabel in de dijk te graven. Graafwerkzaamheden in dijken zijn echter aan strenge regels gebonden. Het is dus wenselijk om deze kabel te vervangen door een draadloos communicatiesysteem. De sensoren worden verticaal aan een kabel ingegraven in een dijk en blijven enkele jaren in de dijk aanwezig. De meetdata van de sensoren worden verstuurd naar een knooppunt vlak onder het grondoppervlak. Het knooppunt zal de meetdata naar de netwerkcontroller versturen, die het weer doorstuurt naar de organisatie die de dijk onderhoudt. Er is bekeken of de draadloze communicatie met huidige technologieën kan worden gerealiseerd. Het blijkt dat er geen bestaande oplossing bestaat. Daarom zullen enkele opties worden geëvalueerd om de gewenste functionaliteit te realiseren. De eerste optie is de knooppunten onder het grondoppervlak geplaatst en de netwerkcontroller bovengronds geplaatst. Binnenin deze optie zal worden gekeken naar twee mogelijke technieken die gebruikt kunnen worden, de ISM band en het GSM netwerk. De vereiste afstand die moet worden overbrugd is ongeveer 300 meter. De tweede mogelijkheid is om laagfrequent ondergronds te gaan zenden zonder enige bovengrondse structuren. De afstand die dan overbrugd zou moeten kunnen worden is 100 meter. De te verwachten verliezen van beide methodes zijn vervolgens in kaart gebracht evenals de nadelen en voordelen van beide opties. Uit de analyse van beide opties blijkt dat de eerste optie, met gebruik van de ISM -banden, de beste resultaten oplevert. Deze optie heeft beduidend minder verliezen en geeft een veel betere mogelijkheid tot standaardisering van het ontwerp. Het gebruik van het GSM-netwerk blijkt financieel onhaalbaar te zijn. De eerste optie wordt verder uitgewerkt en de keuze voor de componenten wordt gemaakt. Met deze componenten ontstaat een hardwarematige realisatie. Met dit ontwerp zijn enkele veldtesten ondernomen om te kijken of de eisen worden behaald. Uit de resultaten van de veldtesten kan de volgende conclusie worden getrokken: De meetdata uit de sensoren kan via draadloze communicatie verzonden worden. Een aanbeveling voor toekomstig gebruik is om eventueel bij dit systeem gerichte antennes te gebruiken.

After Hurricane Katrina the Bring New Orleans Back committee advised to use the Gentilly Ridge to split the Orleans Metro Bowl into compartments in order to reduce the consequences of a flood. The Gentilly Ridge is a natural sand elevation (ridge) of approximately 0,50 1,00 meter NAVD88 in the OMB landscape. The objective of this thesis is to determine the cost-effectiveness (risk reduction versus construction costs) of compartmentation of the Orleans Metro Bowl (OMB) in comparison with an improvement of the primary levee system. Three alternative compartment levees are compared with one primary system improvement. In this thesis the total flood risk of the OMB has been represented in two scenarios: the Katrina event (hurricane class III) and a hurricane class IV event. - The Katrina event is the complete scenario of the Katrina disaster of August 29, 2005. The probability of the event is set to be 1/50 per year. - A hurricane category IV event. The probability of the event is set to be 1/200 per year. Once the probability (in probability/year) and the consequences (in $) of a scenario and alternative have been determined the risk (in $/year) is known. This risk is calculated to a Net Present Value ($) to compare with the costs of a alternative ($). With a detailed cross-section of the compartment levees a calculation of the heightening costs of an earthen levee for each compartment trace has been made. Compartment levee 3 appeared to be less cost-effective than the levee improvement and drop-out. An boundary optimal design level for compartment levee 1 and 2 is calculated and appeared to be both 1,50 meter NAVD88. To overcome a disaster like Katrina, a compartment levee alone will not suffice, therefore the cost effectiveness of a combination Levee improvement and compartment levee is elaborated. Compartment levee 1 (1,50 meter NAVD88) is a quick and cost effective way to deduct the total risk for economical damage in the OMB for the short term. Once the total primary system has been improved, a compartment levee (trace 1) is still of economical value.

Due to climate change, it is expected that the design river discharge of the Rhine will increase from 16000 m3/s in 2015 to 18000 m3/s in 2100. In order to make the Dutch water system climate proof, dikes must be reinforced and raised and/or the design water level must be lowered. In this study, a flood channel as a measure to decrease water levels has been investigated, and has been compared to dike reinforcements. The investigated flood channel runs from the Afgedamde Maas towards the Biesbosch and Bergse Maas. This flood channel has been designed by architect Robbert de Koning, and is part of a larger plan to make the Dutch lower rivers climate proof until the year 2100. The length of the flood channel is approximately 20 kilometers, and the flow width is 600 meters. The flood channel is designed for a use of once every hundred years. The flood channel has been analyzed first by a simple one-dimensional model, in order to get a first estimation of the results. The second step was to model the flood channel in a two-dimensional model. This model is based on the WAQUA Rhine-Maas Estuary model, calibrated for the Hydraulic Boundary conditions 2011 (RMM-HR2011 model). This two-dimensional model has been updated to the reference year 2015. In order to add the flood channel, a new numerical grid has been created, because the flood channel lies outside the existing numerical grid. At a 18000 m3/s Rhine discharge, the flood channel’s discharge is 2707 m3/s (23% of the Waal’s discharge). As a result, the discharge through the Amer increases up to 32%, while the discharge through the Nieuwe Merwede decreases up to 28%. The maximum water level decrease at the Waal is approximately a meter, and the maximum water level increase at the Maas is 0.44 meter. The results showed that the performance of the flood channel is significantly lower than the expectations, and that the lower performance of the flood channel is mainly caused by the discharge capacity of the outlet channels. Based on the water level results and flood channel design, the costs have been calculated. The calculated costs for the flood channel are 1567.6 million euros. The cost-efficiency is estimated on 18 m2/106 €, which is low for such a large measure. Due to the flood channel, the costs for dike reinforcements until the year 2100 are reduced with 266 million euros. However, practical limits to dike reinforcements and values related to landscape, nature and culture are not taken into account, which is expected to change the cost-benefit balance. Based on the water level results and costs calculations, the investigated flood channel is not hydraulically optimal, and not a cost effective alternative for dike reinforcements. However, hydraulic optimization of the channel is possible, and when values of landscape, nature and culture would be taken into account, the cost effectiveness could be more positive.

In the Netherlands one of the most important methods to determine the level of flood protection is a cost-benefit analysis. In this analysis the costs (investment and maintenance costs of dikes) are balanced with the benefits (a reduction of flood risk). Risk is defined as the product of probability and consequence. This approach requires a good estimate of the consequences of floods. A large contributor to the total costs of a flood are the losses due to business interruption. This is defined as forgone value added that is not created due to the fact that firms have to stop production. The causes of the production stop considered in this thesis are material damage to the production facilities of the considered firms and both forward and backward effects in the supply chain. The latter effects include the interruption of firms which are not flooded themselves, unlike their suppliers or buyers. In the Netherlands the software package HIS-SSM (Hoogwater Informatie Systeem – Schade en Slachtoffer Module) is used to determine the consequences of possible floods. This model uses a damage function approach to determine the losses due to business interruption, in which the duration of the business interruption depends on the water depth only. As a result of this assumption, the losses due to business interruption expressed as a share of the material damage range between 1.5 and 5%, independent of the scale of the flood according to HIS-SSM. An analysis of actual floods shows that these figures are between 30% and 125% for large-scale floods. The considered floods for these figures are hurricane Katrina in 2005, hurricane Sandy in 2012, the tsunami in Japan in 2011 and the river floods in Thailand in 2011. Therefore, the losses due to business interruption as calculated by HIS-SSM are expected to be an underestimation of the actual losses due to business interruption. For this reason the ARIO (Adaptive Regional Input-Output) model has been used to determine the losses due to business interruption as well. The ARIO model has only been used for academic purposes so far. Both models have been applied to three cases in the Netherlands, which comprise the flooding of the province of South-Holland, Groningen and the small town of Arcen. The results of the case studies show that the estimates of the losses due to business interruption as calculated by the ARIO model are more in line with figures from actual floods. Both HIS-SSM and the ARIO model have some drawbacks however. The ARIO model appears to be able to determine the losses due to business interruption more accurately than HIS-SSM. Many important processes in the aftermath of a flood are not considered in both models however, such as flood duration and substitution effects. In both models the consequences of flooding of unique firms or infrastructure are underestimated. This is a result of the sector approach in both models, in which all firms are assigned to a certain sector. The transformation of material damage to production capacity has a large influence on the results of the ARIO model. The costs of permanent relocation of firms to foreign countries is also not taken into account in these models, while a simple calculation shows that these might contribute significantly to the total costs of a flood. Some assumptions in this calculation are based on interviews conducted with a member of the Dutch parliament and a professor at Delft University of Technology. Measures to reduce the losses due to business interruption should also be considered in the Dutch flood protection policy, after a cost-benefit analysis has been performed for these measures.

De recente overstromingen in het buitenland (New Orleans, Thailand, Japan en New York) laten zien hoe groot de maatschappelijke ontwrichting na een overstroming is en wat het belang van een goed waterkeringssysteem is. Hoewel Nederland één van de best beveiligde delta’s in de wereld is, voldoet een derde van onze hoofdwaterkeringen niet aan onze wettelijke normen. De komende jaren is het van belang om onder meer in het hoogwaterbeschermingsprogramma en Deltaprogramma voortvarend vorm te geven aan uitwerking en implementatie van versterkingen. De overstromingsrisicobenadering kan helpen om te komen tot kosteneffectieve investeringen in hoogwaterbescherming.

Plasma membrane H+-ATPase isoforms with increased H+/ATP ratios represent a desirable asset in yeast metabolic engineering. In vivo proton coupling of two previously reported Pma1p isoforms (Ser800Ala, Glu803Gln) with increased in vitro H+/ATP stoichiometries was analysed by measuring biomass yields of anaerobic maltose-limited chemostat cultures expressing only the different PMA1 alleles. In vivo H+/ATP stoichiometries of wildtype Pma1p and the two isoforms did not differ significantly.

Metabolic engineering – the improvement of cellular activities by manipulation of enzymatic, transport and regulatory functions of the cell – has enabled the industrial production of a wide variety of biological molecules from renewable resources. Microbial production of fuels and chemicals thereby provides an alternative to oil-based production. To compete with petrochemistry, not only the kinetics of product formation, but also the product yield needs to be optimized. Whereas reduction of byproduct formation, modification of redox-cofactor balances and optimization of the stoichiometry of product formation is studies in many laboratories, the ATP yield of product formation is often overlooked, although it is of paramount importance for the product yield that can be obtained. In this thesis, several opportunities for improvement of free-energy (ATP) conservation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a key industrial microorganism, were investigated. For product pathways with excess ATP and biomass formation, a widely applicable strategy (relocating sucrose hydrolysis) was presented to decrease free-energy (ATP) conservation and thereby increase the product yield. On the other hand, the efficiency of free-energy (ATP) conservation was increased by expression of a maltose phosphorylase, which forms the basis for further development of these strategies towards increasing the ATP yield of many industrial target pathways and specifically to potentially enable efficient anaerobic homolactate production with S. cerevisiae.

This paper presents the results of work done for the World Bank to develop low carbon policies for road transport in Poland. Here, we outline the development of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, develop a Business As Usual (BAU) scenario based on social-economic-, infrastructure-, car market, vehicle stock-, fuel use, and technological developments in Poland, and forecast future GHG emissions to 2030. We analyse the potential effect of several policy measures including road pricing, congestion charging, fuel tax policies, eco-driving training, parking policies, and promotion of non-motorized and public transport. If the assumptions included in the BAU scenario remain valid, and there is little reason to assume they will not, Poland will not be able to meet its GHG reduction obligations to the EU as well as under other international obligations. Worse, even if strong policy measures are put in place, Poland will still have substantially higher GHG emissions than what is possible in the EU target growth of 14% by 2020 for non-EU-ETS sector such as road transport.

Large-scale urban regeneration projects become highly complex as they involve multiple actors with different expectations. In general, the implementation of such projects entails building governance regimes at the city or regional level, but this often means forging partnerships between public and private actors to serve as policy instruments. Each city government formulates its own strategy for coping with the complexities of various levels of policy-making, thereby establishing multi-level governance regimes. And each city has its own particular experience with the implementation trajectory: long or short, successful or unsuccessful. This paper focuses on how the complexities of multi-actor governance influence the implementation of these projects. The purpose is to show how the macro-level institutional context affects the project’s success and to analyse the challenges posed by multi-actor governance. Comparative analysis of two old port regeneration projects, namely Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid in the Netherlands, and Het Eilandje in Antwerp, Belgium, reveals how similar challenges were dealt with in different institutional contexts.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae CEN.PK 113-7D is widely used for metabolic engineering and systems biology research in industry and academia. We sequenced, assembled, annotated and analyzed its genome. Single-nucleotide variations (SNV), insertions/deletions (indels) and differences in genome organization compared to the reference strain S. cerevisiae S288C were analyzed. In addition to a few large deletions and duplications, nearly 3000 indels were identified in the CEN.PK113-7D genome relative to S288C. These differences were overrepresented in genes whose functions are related to transcriptional regulation and chromatin remodelling. Some of these variations were caused by unstable tandem repeats, suggesting an innate evolvability of the corresponding genes. Besides a previously characterized mutation in adenylate cyclase, the CEN.PK113-7D genome sequence revealed a significant enrichment of non-synonymous mutations in genes encoding for components of the cAMP signalling pathway. Some phenotypic characteristics of the CEN.PK113-7D strains were explained by the presence of additional specific metabolic genes relative to S288C. In particular, the presence of the BIO1 and BIO6 genes correlated with a biotin prototrophy of CEN.PK113-7D. Furthermore, the copy number, chromosomal location and sequences of the MAL loci were resolved. The assembled sequence reveals that CEN.PK113-7D has a mosaic genome that combines characteristics of laboratory strains and wild-industrial strains.

Purpose This study aims to develop a characterization method for coating structure based on image analysis, which is particularly promising for the rational design of coated particles in the pharmaceutical industry. Methods The method applies the MATLAB image processing toolbox to images of coated particles taken with Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CSLM). The coating thicknesses have been determined along the particle perimeter, from which a statistical analysis could be performed to obtain relevant thickness properties, e.g. the minimum coating thickness and the span of the thickness distribution. The characterization of the pore structure involved a proper segmentation of pores from the coating and a granulometry operation. Results The presented method facilitates the quantification of porosity, thickness and pore size distribution of a coating. These parameters are considered the important coating properties, which are critical to coating functionality. Additionally, the effect of the coating process variations on coating quality can straight-forwardly be assessed. Conclusions Enabling a good characterization of the coating qualities, the presented method can be used as a fast and effective tool to predict coating functionality. This approach also enables the influence of different process conditions on coating properties to be effectively monitored, which latterly leads to process tailoring.